rodeo? we have mark udall with the lay of the land in the battleground as the candidates try to lasso votes. the dust hasn't settled in benghazi. will it create a campaign issue? all that plus my thoughts on not so moderate mitt and the biggest horse you have ever seen. giddyup. here's "the cycle" for wednesday, october 10th. today, we bring you the debate edition. past, present and clinton. we'll get to him in a minute but in the next act of the saga plays out tomorrow night in danville, kentucky. where joe biden and paul ryan will meet. krystal ball is heading there after the show today and will be there live for us tomorrow.

the face-off is stark differences of the two men on display. ryan fancies himself a numbers guy, of course. biden is beloved for feared for saying what he thinks and then the generation gap between the two. think of it this way. when biden was elected in 2002, r -- ryan wasn't -- >> i don't know how paul will deal with this debate. obviously, the vice president has done, i don't know, 15 or 20 debates during his lifetime. experienced debater. this is, i think paul's first debate. he may have done something in high school. i don't know. >> so amusing. >> we always joke about saying the bar is load for your own side. that might be the lowest. my own thoughts heading in to this, i have been saying, you know, all week that i just basically expect biden to turn in the performance that obama

did not turn in. >> sure. >> do not miss the openings that obama missed going after the missing details of romney's plans, the context he didn't want to talk about the plans and seen paul ryan think of the issue of how to pay for the tax cut plan. paul ryan's been asked the time a few times and interviews on fox and you would think of as friendly territory. he said i don't know. he said i don't have enough time to get in to the numbers on this. i totally expect biden to come after ryan on that aggressively. i think the thought is, though, republicans had a long time. the ryan campaign and romney campaign knows this is coming and looking at romney's performance, it was glib, superficially appealing. he was able to dance around not providing details so i don't know exactly how they do it. i just -- i have a kind of hunch that, you know, they'll find something that paul ryan can say that will, you know, that will get around the criticism that biden's going to come in with.

>> on the lowering expectations front, the president came out said and he thinks joe biden is going to be terrific. surprisingly, they're not lowering expectations and i think trying to pump people up a little bit. you could not think of two different sort of political characters than joe biden and barack obama. obama's the deep thinker, the weary warrior. you have the sense in the first debate he didn't want to be there and shouldn't have to go through this. joe biden, on the other hand, i think he loves and embraces the political combat. i think he enjoys it and makes a big difference when you feel like the person on the stage is having fun. >> yeah. >> that makes a huge difference. and i do think he has a natural instinct to go for the attacks to be able to do it in a jovial way that doesn't come across as cutting and a challenge because they're seated at a table like this. >> one quick correction. obama said was that biden was a very good middle school debater.

i just want to make sure -- >> entirely different people, you'd have that between biden and ryan, there's an age difference, a regional difference, a cultural difference between them and the men they are. maybe the experience gap is gigantic. and i'm just going to be watching to see what ryan does. how do you explain your budget and how you will pay for that? romney budget. he's repeatedly failed in the question. i don't have time to explain. i'm sure the vice president will be happy to cede the extra time to have the time to try to explain one of those could be completely fatal. >> i think paul ryan takes the question to joe biden explain your record but as for style, look, joe biden's old. time fighter, time fighter. has to be careful not to look like he's overcamp sating for obama's lackluster performance and blustery and wild eyed next

to paul ryan who can be cool, calm and collected. while biden needs to be aggressive, i agree. he needs to be just very aware of paul ryan's innate ability to not get, you know, flustered and i think we have an sot of a good example of this going against the president and the vice president in 2010. >> there really is a difference between us. and we've been talking about how much we agree on different issues but there really is a difference between us and basically this. we don't think the government should be in control of all of this. we want people to be in control. now, i'll just simply say this and i respectfully disagree with the vice president about what the american people are or aren't saying or qualified the speak on their behalf. >> you have an opinion. >> so we'll all representatives of the american people and do town hall meetings. we all talk and are engaged. >> all right.

there's paul ryan. one other note on this. we have not seen an age gap this stark of two candidates in a national debate since 1988. lloyd benson and dan quayle. we all know how that went. not an oman but anyway. all talk today is focused on mitt romney's surge after last week's presidential debate. today, romney had a one-point lead in the real clear politics poll and pundits throwing suggestions in the ring of what president obama needs to do next week at the debate. here's a view of the past and the future. >> i had a different reaction to that first debate than a lot of people did. i mean, i saw -- i thought, wow. here's old moderate mitt. where you been, boy? i missed you all these last two years. now, the problem with this deal is the deal was made by severe

conservative mitt. that was how he described himself for two whole years. until three or four days before the debate they got together and said, hey man, this ship is sinking faster than the "titanic." just show up with a sunny face and say, i didn't say all that stuff i said the last two years. i don't have that tax plan i had for two years. you going to believe me or your lying eyes here? come on. what are you doing? and if i eve been the president, i might have said, i hate to get in the way of this. i miss you. >> wow. >> 66 years old, ladies and gentlemen. open heart surgery just a couple of years ago. >> he can still do that. >> why isn't obama out there doing that? a.b. stoddard "the hill." i would start with this.

i'm always interested in the sort of campaign narratives, the narratives by the media about the candidates. all year this year obama was basically ahead in the polls, a winner's narrative. romney with a winner's narrative. i sense it's changing with big bird and "sesame street." sort of becoming self fulfilling. i'm wondering if biden is not perceived as the winner of this debate tomorrow night, is that going to make the narrative problem a loss worse for the obama campaign? >> it is if the polls that were taken out in the field in the beginning of this week are the same as the ones we saw that were taken, you know, friday night and in to the weekend and they continue to confirm that mitt romney's really surging in all the right places and that would become a problem. if there's sort of, you know, a draw between biden and ryan, where we say, boy, they both really did pretty well. ryan held his own, biden didn't say something crazy and they

both have a lot of knowledge if not experience but they're credible and qualified and the obama ticket didn't mess up and then you saw in the polls more of a settling, i think you'd have a more competitive situation going in to tuesday night when obama has to face romney again. but if you see a great performance by ryan, some kind of self emolation of biden and surging past president obama, it's really going to put the pressure on president obama to do something starkly different on tuesday than he did last week. >> a.b. it's s.e. and nice to have a fellow initialled guest on the panel. >> that's right. >> do you think he's looking at the biden-ryan debate as an opportunity to finally right the ship or thinking just get this done and get me on to the next debate so i can right the ship myself? >> well, i thought he made a

good point about biden. first of all, i know both of them and paul ryan and joe biden couldn't be nicer people and think that about each other. but biden has to be careful about what you had mentioned in your earlier comments of looking like the knowledgeable gray beard talking to the youngster. >> yeah. >> so he has a lot more experience but paul ryan's certainly has the knowledge. so that has to be something he's careful about. i think it's wrong for president obama to hope after all these years of sort of kicking joe biden around he has to save him and clean up his mess. but obama has to sell himself on tuesday night. he didn't do that at the last debate and mitt romney did. mitt romney is miserable at selling himself for months. it wasn't a great convention, not great out on the stump but there he was selling himself. he really surging not because he hacked away at the president. because he offered a really good version of his agenda and himself. he was everyone thet .

>> a.b. it is strange times in democrat-ville right now at least in 2012 times. doubt, anxiety, hyper ventilating of people supporting the president. and all because of an interpersonal face bomb on the president's part. if you wrote this in a movie you wouldn't believe it and the race to turn on that sort of a thing. and the president knows the team obama knows it's having a bad week and made a mistake. the president called the tom joiner radio show, the dominant black radio show, speaking to a core part of the base to explain, hey, what happened there. play a little bit of what he said to them. >> you know, the debate i think is fair to say i was too polite. it's hard to sometimes just keep on saying what you're saying isn't true. it's repetitive. but yeah, the good news is that's just the first one. >> when you hear that comment, he particularly himself saying i

was too polite, i department want to keep saying you're wrong, you're lying, you're lying, what will he do in the next debate? >> right. there's the risk. in a town hall setting and obama happens to be better at relatings with one on one than mitt romney is but he goes in one down having lost the first debate. does he get aggressive with mitt romney? try to fight him point by point and seem like the bummer in the room and mitt romney smiling and be at ease like he was at the debate and the primary debates for anyone watching. and so that's a real risk for him. how aggressive can he be in that setting and really start using words like, you know, falsehood or lie? that's really a risk for the president and i think what he needs to learn about the last debate is mitt romney characterized in the ads early on and successful and saw the lead for the president because he defined him so early as an out of touch rich guy to leave the middle class for dead.

that's not the mitt romney that people just tuning in just saw and that's why the lead of obama is fragile. he needs to work hard to get that back defining the differences between them without attacking so much. >> a.b. a lot of democrats are freaking out. sullivan is apparently crying himself to sleep at night. do you think that the obama campaign is freaking out or do you think they're keeping it calm and cool and waiting for things to settle down? >> we know from all the years and obviously from 2007 and a very historic and very fascinating campaign in '08 and the primary against hillary clinton and then in the general that president obama doesn't like drama and mr. long view but i think in this instance they need to freak out, set mitt romney's debate performance of last week and get ready. >> obviously, you know, sullivan is a conservative and perhaps the support always fragile and as you well know incumbents almost never win the first

debate so a lot of hyperventilating is misplaced. >> sure. whatever you think of the politics of this, curious to see if ryan wins the debate. love to read that column the next day. i can't -- >> that's it. >> a.b. from "the hill," thank you for joining us. >> thank you. up next this afternoon, congress investigating the terror attack on the u.s. consulate in libya and could be big political implications. we'll get to it as we roll on for wednesday, the 10th of october. discounts to thine customers! safe driver, multi-car, paid in full -- a most fulsome bounty indeed, lord jamie. thou cometh and we thy saveth! what are you doing? we doth offer so many discounts, we have some to spare. oh, you have any of those homeowners' discounts? here we go. thank you. he took my shield, my lady. these are troubling times in the kingdom. more discounts than we knoweth what to do with. now, that's progressive.

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yesterday, the state department began the process of coming clean about what occurred

in benghazi. contrary to early assertions by the administration, let's understand. there was no protest. and cameras reveal that and the state department, the fbi and others have that video. >> however, the chairman claims we are pursuing this investigation on a quote bipartisan basis, that has simply not been the case. chairman withheld documents provided to the committee which is in violation of the house rules. >> struggled to obtain additional personnel but was never able to obtain the numbers he felt comfortable with. >> this afternoon, serious questions of security of personnel raised. former head of the u.s. military team in libya testified before the house oversight committee that even before the attack that killed ambassador stevens and three other americans they never had the forces needed.

comes a day after the state department said they never concluded it was triggered by the youtube video. this despite the fact that u.n. ambassador susan rice repeatedly called it spontaneous. the president's top counterterrorism adviser met with the libyan president today and discussed the effort to track down those responsible for the attack. of course, this is an election year and certainly politics to all this. democrats say they have been completely left out of the oversight investigation. being led by republican chairman issa. mitt romney recently made the attack a focus of criticism of the president on foreign policy. let's put it through the "spin cycle." first context. i think issa would have more credible if he didn't try to make a scandal stick to the president. he was the one that was behind the fast and furious and all male panel on contraception. the idea of him conducting a

nonpartisan unbiassed investigation is just ludicrous. second of all, we should point out that republicans actually cut half a billion dollars from embassy security funding and hillary clinton actually said at the time that that could be detrimental to america's national security. they're not without fault there. i think that this message, the foreign policy attack on the president for mitt romney has had some legs and, yes, i know this is an election that's about the economy, but pollster actually did a test of mitt romney's messages, several of his messages, and the one with the resonance of independents was actually his critique of the p president on foreign policy. >> he said the developments in the middle east are bumps in the road. yeah. that was my reaction. bumps in the road? we had an ambassador assassinated. we had a muslim brotherhood

member elected to the presidency of egypt. 20,000 people killed in syria. we have tumult in pakistan. and of course, iran is that much closer to having the capacity to build a nuclear weapon. >> now, this -- these messaging tests before the latest romney reboot and may have some more messages and literally only oned that moved the needle at all with independents. >> yeah. i'm skeptical of the idea that foreign policy will literally move voters in the election either way. i see a real political risk here for obama because of the timing of this. i don't know where the investigation's going. i'm wanting to get to the bottom of this but it sounds like in the headlines, the noise generating in the news media is, you know, controversy, wrongdoing potentially by, you know, someone involved in the administration. maybe general incompetence. that's the theme of the possibilities raised here and it comes at a time i talked about this in the last segment of the media narratives constructed.

all year until a week ago obama seen as the inevitable winner and that at least temporarily those narratives are shifting right now and when a story like this comes along and obama is starting to suddenly portrayed in a much different light than all year, i think it's a potential to magnify a problematic week for him. >> absolutely right. this adds on to that. it does not help. the libya situation does not look good for the administration at all. absolutely through. issa is not just aiming the political guns at the president but firing at hillary clinton trying to muddy the record as secretary of state and looking ahead to 2016. i have to think of the narrative of obama strong on foreign policy cemented in american's minds and just can't easily knock that out and romney trying to fail the commander in chief test including the vmi speech and many people saying ridiculous and fanciful and

tries to portray him as a latter day george marshall. every day that romney spends on foreign policy i think especially in an economy election is a day lost. >> well, look. i'm not going to politicize this. it has political implications but whether obama is up for re-election or someone else or a year away, this is an issue that will have serious consequences for months to come and it needs a serious look. and the only timeline i think that matters to me is the one that i've been laying out. i'm on state department phone calls. talked to libyan counterterrorism officials, folks in the state department. the timeline is one of negligence, incompetence and duplicity. negligence in failing to secure the assets and nancy pelosi's statement is incompetent. the discussion of seven different agencies saying seven

different things about what this was tied to, the state department yesterday saying that it never thought it was about a video. meanwhile nine days later the president out sayinging it was about a video and susan rice was not telling the truth. she's not been telling the truth for sometime now. so, whatever -- whatever the ramifications or obama or hillary or daryl issa is secondary. we need to find out how it happened. >> that's a heavy and unyou be instant yated claim about ambassador susan rice. >> she is not telling the truth. i'll say it to the camera. she's not been telling the truth. i'm not the first to say. she's not telling the truth. >> s.e. i don't know what she could gain from lying about this. >> oh, there's plenty to gain. you laid out the political implications of what to gain. >> that's unsubstantiated.

>> the state department and the administration are saying totally different things than she is. >> s.e. a mind reader. >> the truth. we go west. mark udall joins us talking swing states and the race changing debate that happened in his home state. bob... oh, hey alex. just picking up some, brochures, posters copies of my acceptance speech. great! it's always good to have a backup plan, in case i get hit by a meteor. wow, your hair looks great. didn't realize they did photoshop here. hey, good call on those mugs. can't let 'em see what you're drinking. you know, i'm glad we're both running a nice, clean race. no need to get nasty. here's your "honk if you had an affair with taylor" yard sign. looks good. [ male announcer ] fedex office. now save 50% on banners. [ male announcer ] fedex office.

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mitt romney as we speak is making his second stop of the day in the all-important swing state of ohio. and he's still got one more to go tonight. former massachusetts governor is hoping to capitalize on the performance and chip away on the slight lead in the buckeye state. the latest real clear politics poll shows the obama lead narrowing in iowa and and pulling ahead in colorado.

guest spot today, a man that knows about swing states and especially the centennial state, that's democratic senator mark udall of colorado. welcome to the show. i guess i want to start -- we're hearing, you know, pushback i think of liberals and supporters saying everybody calm down on the democratic side. not time to panic yet. let's see how it sorts out. at the same time we have all year first time an average of all polls showing mitt romney in the lead in this race. i'm wondering as a democrat and obama supporter how real is the possibility right now that mitt romney can win this election? >> steve, thanks for having me on. we ought to all take a deep breath. campaigns have twists and turns. last week was a challenging week for the president and the campaign but there's 27 days left to go. the president has the right, forward-looking agenda. coming to colorado, people here

care about issues and clear contrasts of governor romney and president obama. we have a diverse state coming to the geography. eastern plains growing the foods and we have the mountains and canyons to the west of the front range. you say the same thing in every area of colorado to serve the state. i didn't hear that from governor romney. i'm not sure which governor romney showed up last week but shaken the etch-a-sketch and next couple of weeks americans have a clear contrast of president and governor romney and the positions that governor romney's taken over the last couple of years. you need somebody who's consistent as president. >> senator, i love colorado but i want to talk about the senate for a moment. >> yes. >> we can't truly talk about the story of this presidency without talking about gop obstruction and how people who say that the president's been ineffectual won't understand a situation of one party saying we refuse to work with you on anything of a jobs bill to who's the po

postmaster general. can you talk about how obstruction works and how it has affected this presidency? >> you're spot on in your analysis. for example, a year ago the president proposed a jobs package that was reasonable, that included ideas republicans promoted through the years. if we'd moved it through the congress we would have a million more jobs created and jobs that would end up hiring policemen and teachers, public safety works, jobs that make a difference. and of course, the plan didn't even start. it didn't get a hearing. obstructionism is the way of the two years in congress. have we done as good of a job explaining that? no. you will hear more about that, clearly. >> senator, you were talking a little bit about the geography of colorado and hoping you could walk it through it more. watching the returns on election night, any particular counties or regions to look at as bellwethers? >> that's an excellent question.

look at jefferson county, laramer county and arapajo county. but those are three really key countie counties. they swing and we're working very hard in all three of them to get out the vote. it's now, krystal, about getting the vote out and as i said earlier comparing and contrasting the records of these two candidates. >> senator, tell us from someone, you know, on the ground in colorado, what was your post-debate reaction? we can talk about the media spin all we want but you, i assume you watched. maybe you watched from the hall in colorado. tell me what it was like. >> yeah, s.e. i was in the hall. i thought it was a draw. i'm a democrat and a supporter of the president. i think he's put our country back on track given what he inherited. i thought the president was

dignified, inclusive and presidential and truthful. but, of course, the optics on tv are different and the punditocracy wants a race. >> i want a landslide. i don't want a race. >> you want a race. >> i don't want a race. >> we don't want a race. we want a landslide. >> senator, do you hope he turns in a similar performance next week? you can't possibly. >> the president will come out and create a contrast. i think the president thought that they ought to have a polite exchange and romney was loaded for bear. i took part in many debates in '08. 16 to be exact. i had some off nights and some nights on the game. the president didn't come with everything he has but he will bring everything he has next week in a setting i think speaks to his strengths. >> all right. senator mark udall, a great family name in democratic politics. your dad had one liners i still quote to this day.

thank you for joining us. >> thank you. straight ahead, a look at what voters really think of president obama and mitt romney. who'd you rather live next door to or look after your dog? that last one's obvious. we have the results of a new "esquire"/yahoo! news poll next. ♪

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debate and after the conventions. reveals telling preferences. who would you prefer as a supervisor, who you want tax advice from or go on a road trip with and then the all-important question who would win in a fist fight. for an inside look at what americans think about the 2012 election is senior editor of "esquire" magazine is richard dormant. the "america is about to reveal itself" poll is in the issue and women we love and features krystal ball. >> okay. >> richard, so, clearly your voters overwhelmingly prefer to hang out with barack obama. they want to go on a road trip with him. they want to be his facebook friend. they want him to watch their dog. tell us about what you think that means. >> well, one of the most important things that we found in the poll and something i think really deeply reinforces

mitt romney's position moving forward is 75% of americans have little -- say they have little or nothing in common with him. you saw that played out in this who would you rather poll? who would you rather have in your life in such and such position, american's chose obama over romney to be the boss, the road trip companion and their d dogsitter. >> i'm glad you brought that up. next thing is that question, how much do you feel you have in common with obama and romney? i'm going to put this a different way. 14% said they had a lot in common with obama, meaning 85% of the respondents felt little or nothing in common with him. >> but s.e. -- >> let me finish. only 5% said a lot in common with romney. meaning 93% said they had little or nothing in common with him. 2% said they had no opinion. so what strikes me there is for

all ocht talk of wanting them to connect with us, wanting to have go have a beer with them, we actually don't elect leaders in primaries or elections who really, you know, we feel like get us. >> well, i'm not sure that's entirely true, s. aechlt. i think when you look at how mitt romney approached the first campaign, or the first debate, rather, i think you see a deliberate tact to show he's in touch with the common man. in addition to 74% number saying they have nothing in common with him. >> that wasn't my question. both fail a little bit on the do you have a lot in common with me? because whether it's obama at 85% or romney at 93%, most people don't think they have a loot in common with either of these guys. >> no. but when you ask whether they have anything in common with them or a little bit in common with them, the numbers are starker. 74% say no to romney and 60% no to obama and obama i might add doesn't carry a wallet and drive a car. of course they don't. mitt romney is a civilian.

he's unemployed. >> i get it, i get it. >> richard, how are you? >> fantastic. >> really interesting in the poll. who would win in a fist fight. the much younger and fitter obama wins there in a landslide. >> looks pretty fit. >> some serious things in the poll. do you know anyone who wouldn't vote for romney solely because he's mormon? 13%. do you know anyone who wouldn't vote for obama solely because he's black. 26%. that's a rather huge number. that's the black tax we have talked about on this show. i want to talk to you about who would be a better role model for your daughter where once again michele obama wins in a landslide and ann romney's a lovely person but we have seen through the last four years michele obama be the sort of amazing role model for american women, intelligent, seriousness, grace. a lot of men read "esquire." what are they seeing about michele obama that's speaking to them through this idea? >> well, there are two ways to

look at that question right there. the first is that, of course, michele obama outpolls ann romney. the first lady of the united states. active and visible first lady. you could look at it as a much plainer side by side comparison and twice as many people feel having her as a role model than ann romney. >> richard, one of the questions that interested me is you asked a sort of boot strap question. who had more help in achieving the success and people felt that romney through the wealth and privilege inherited had more assistance versus the affirmative action of the president may have benefited from. do you think that with that framing in mind that's part of why the american people found romney's comments about 47% of the country seeing themselves as victims were so galling if they were seeing romney himself as a figure who sort of inherited his position? >> i do think that.

and when we -- when you look at whether or not americans think that whether that's good thing, whether the people were helped by the very circumstances in life, 66% say that it's a good thing that barack obama may have been benefited of affirmative action programs. only 44% say it's a good thing that mitt romney benefited from the family's wealth and connections. you see a disconnect of how people view the certain advantages. >> richard, thank you for your excellent insight. up next, looking ahead to tomorrow's tomorrow night's vp debate. you heard my joe biden fantasy yesterday. it's weird. what are the fellow cyclists dreaming of? [ woman ] ring. rin. progresso. in what world do potatoes, bacon and cheese add up to 100 calories? your world. ♪ [ whispers ] real bacon... creamy cheese... 100 calories... [ chef ] ma'am [ male announcer ] progresso. you gotta taste this soup.

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well, that's all the time we have on this mr. romney neighborhood. remember, there's only one person in the world that's like you and that's you. people can like you the way you are but if they don't, then just pretend to be the exact opposite of what you are and then maybe they'll like you. >> doesn't that undermine your -- >> bill, you're fired. >> yes, mr. romney's neighborhood. welcome back to "so that happened" inspired by a favorite korniacki. this is the awesome corner. fallon is classic. let's take a trip to the neighborhood of make believe where me and paul ryan get most

of the fakes. ouch. to be fair, he says that president obama taught us a new word. choke. ouch. speaking of american icons and political message s check out this music blowing up online with a cool animated look at big ronnie. >> a few months ago i told the american people i did not train arms for hostages. my heart and my best intentions still tell me that's true but the facts and evidence tell me it is not. >> now for a little break from all of the proper propaganda, there's a slice of awesome with a side of what? from the marching band of the ohio state university with a tribute to video games. tetris, mario brothers, pac-man and blowing the crowd and the internet away with this, the

horse from the legend of zelda. >> wow. >> hard for that many people to work together as a unit but that kind of large scale precision is why nerds rule the world. >> cool. >> and speaking of nerds ruling the world, we, when i say we, steve, cyclists want to take you to pundit fantasyland. the cycle is being a little whimsical of late. s.e. gave us a fantasy scenario. >> sometimes a girl wants a long, slow, deep, soft wet, kiss that lasts three days. so come on, joe, crash biden. this might be your last chance to do it your way. romance us. dazzle us. show me and meat how it's done in the bigs. go out with a bang. >> wow. >> bull durham. i stand by that. bull durham. >> as we thought you would. we have fantasies of the

tomorrow's matchup and what might happen between joe biden and paul ryan and i had an image of what i'd like to see. imagine biden as uma and ryan as daryl hannah. >> ugh! >> i love this fight. this is -- oh, what happened? we were supposed to see daryl hannah's face go into the toilet and see the shot from the toilet point of view. that's what i really wanted to see. all right, next time. >> i had a bit of a movie fantasy. i was thinking of the jim carrey movie "liar, liar" where he's forced to tell the truth for 48 hours. >> what's the problem? ♪ >> i can't lie! >> commendable, mr. reed, but

i'm still waiting to hear good cause. do you have one or not? >> not. >> motion for continuance denied. >> i would love it if for 24 hours paul ryan had to tell the exact, literal truth at the debate. it would be amazing. >> we're trying to mix movies and politics so my all-time favorite movie "hoosiers" and a scene where gene hackman goes before the town hall and they take a vote whether to fire him. he gives his speech, not that passionate, looks like the vote is going against him and then an extremely popular wild card, jimmy, basketball legend, he won't play in on the team, and i'll put anymore as bill clinton. so imagine bill clinton showing up at the debate. >> i imagine it's time for a change. it's time for me to start playing ball.

>> i told you once we got rid of him. >> one other thing. i play, coach stays. he goes, i go. >> lovely. up next, steve has a passionate plea, please stop saying mitt has moved to the middle.

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and with regards to health care, you had remarkable details with regards to my preexisting condition plan. you obviously studied occupy my plan. in fact, i have a plan that deals with people with

preexisting conditions. that's part of my health care plan. what we did in massachusetts is a model for the nation state by state. and i said that at that time. ♪ here i am stuck in the middle with you ♪ >> that was one of the moments from last week's debate that led reporters and commentators to say romney moved to the middle. finally after months of being preoccupied with the gop base, romney has decided to junk the right wing red meat and start talking to swing voters. it seems to be working. he's trailed in real clear politics poll but now he's pulled ahead. there is a problem with the story line, though. romney actually hasn't moved to the middle at all. at least not in any meaningful, substantive way. he didn't in last week's debate and he hasn't on the campaign trail since then. what he has done is kind of brilliant, though n a devious way. mitt romney understands the actual policy positions that the republican party now stands for.

the positions romney had to swear up and down that he shares in order to win the republican nomination on basically poison in a general election, so he's just pretenned he doesn't have those views. take that debate clip that romney said people with preexisting conditions would have nothing to worry about urn his health care plan. that's a moderate thing to say and what swing voters would want to hear. they would be upset denying insurance to the sick but that's exactly what would happen under romney's plan, which would require people with preexisting conditions to have, quote, continuous coverage in order to be protected. in other words, if you have a preexisting condition, lose your job and you can't afford to keep paying the premiums, you're out of luck the next time you try to get health insurance. hardly a moderate position but it is romney's position. he's just pretending it isn't right now. this happened on issue after issue on the debate. education, taxes, medicare and happening on the campaign trail now. romney actually tried to win

over moderate women yesterday by saying that, quote, there is no legislation with regards to abortion that i'm familiar with that would become part of my agenda. again, that sounds really good to moderates. it also doesn't sound at all like the official party platform that romney's running on. that platform says this -- quote, we support human life amendment to the constitution, endorse legislation to make clear the 14th amendment's protections apply to unborn children. that's called the human life amendment. that is legislation romney said would be part of his agenda. the president from the podium never called him out on that either. this is how romney plans to sustain the momentum he now has. he's saying words that sound soothing to the swing voter but they're not backed up with any policies moderate in any way which is probably why we haven't heard conservatives freaking out about romney moving to the middle. they know the difference between a rhetorical shift and the real deal. that is does it for "the cycle,"

martin bashir, take it away. >> brilliant in a devious way. i couldn't have said it any better. good after, it's wednesday, october 10th. as the great philosopher george costanza once said, it's not a lie if you believe it. ♪ mitt romney flips again -- >> there's no legislation with regards to abortion that i'm familiar with that -- that would become part of my agenda. >> it would be my preference they reverse roe v. wade. >> but he offers a details of which loopholes he would change. >> they would continue to be proernss for those type of expenses. >> no, mitt. what will you close? >> the devils in the detail. the angel is in the policy. >> good lord. >> i don't have a $5 trillion tax cut. >> well, in the current rates,